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Friday, March 26, 2010

Gil de Ferran, co-owner of de Ferran Luczo Dragon Racing has been elected by the majority of the IZOD IndyCar Series owners to the newly formed ICONIC (Innovative, Competitive, Open-Wheel, New, Industry-Relevant, Cost-Effective) committee. The remaining members which will be made up of a league representative, an engine expert, a marketer/promoter, and a racing engineer will be chosen by the IRL's new CEO Randy Bernard, and announced next week. The committee will then present their suggestion to Mr. Bernard who hopes to make the final decision in the next 90 days.

In a teleconference just after the announcement that de Ferran Motorsports and Luczo Dragon would merge, Gil was asked how excited he was about the new chassis and he answered:

"I think very excited. Certainly I think it gives everyone an opportunity to kind of reset the button in a way. We've been using the same equipment now for several years. Certainly there's a lot of teams that have amassed a huge amount of data and experience with that equipment, and it's a good way to gain a competitive advantage.

I think our job over the next couple of years is to try to make up that difference, but also at the same time create those tools and processes that would hopefully get us out of the blocks very quickly here with the new car."

He was then asked which chassis proposal he liked:

"Well, to be honest, I mean, I've been keeping kind of a somewhat of a distance. I think certainly the DeltaWing proves to be a radical concept, shall I say, a great departure from what we're used to seeing, and there's certainly very interesting aspects to it. But I think there's some interesting aspects to all the other proposals. I look forward to seeing what the final decision is.

I think it's important for us that whatever decision is made that Indy car retain its what I believe is its true nature. The cars have always been the fastest cars on the planet. In many ways I think IndyCar was the original extreme sport. The cars were known as the fastest cars, and I think hopefully that has to be part in my mind of the future of IndyCar. They have to retain that value."